DEN83LA162 · Cessna 150
Cessna 150 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF) to U42 · Salt Lake City, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA162
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N19348
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF), Richfield, UTTo U42 · Salt Lake City, UT
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight briefing service, not obtained
- Pilot in command › Total
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A POLE DURING AN OFF AIRPORT PRECAUTIONARY LANDING IN IMC WEATHER. THE NON INSTRUMENT RATED STUDENT PILOT TOOK OFF FOR A 150 MILE CROSS COUNTRY WITH LESS THAN FULL FUEL TANKS BECAUSE NO 87 OCTANE WAS AVAILABLE. HE ALSO FAILED TO GET A WEATHER BRIEFING. HE ENCOUNTERED ADVERSE WEATHER ENROUTE AND DIVERTED EAST TOWARD HEBER CITY. HECONTACTED HEBER ARPT FOR NAVIGATION ASSISTANCE AND STATED THAT NONE WAS PROVIDED. HE FOLLOWED A ROAD AND OBTAINED AN ADVISORY FROM HEBER. THEY REPORTED THAT IT WAS RAINING WITH HAIL AND 30 MPH WINDS. THE PILOT STATED THAT HIS ENGINE LOST POWER AND HE DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND LOOKED FOR A LANDING AREA. THE ACFT STRUCK A TELEPHONE POLE DURING LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA162
- Event ID
- 20001214X43707
- Case number
- DEN83LA162
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 90cc9f5d6b9fc4447215defa101f6fa6dd720dc23b0d145ca3ca47c02c24a1d9; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:35:58.326Z.